


A Love of Decadence, if Nothing Else

by Etnoe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Corsetry, Eldritchfuck Roseworld, Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Piercings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 14:51:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20293279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etnoe/pseuds/Etnoe
Summary: Rose, imperious and soft-spoken as ever, announced that she granted each member of the harem one request.





	A Love of Decadence, if Nothing Else

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Caracalliope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caracalliope/gifts).

* * *

  
  
Rose, imperious and soft-spoken as ever, announced that she granted each of them one request. She was blinking more than usual when she said it, and the constant tip-tilt of her mouth was still downwards - however, she wasn't really qualifying the announcement the way she'd taken to doing lately. Nothing about _you don't have to earn it_ or _it slips my mind what that was even for_, or anything along those lines, only a time limit: _from now until dinner_.

"A request! Yes, I can think of one." Aradia stood up from her aesthetically-pleasing perch on the edge of a velvet couch cushion and strode forwards. She stopped in front of Rose, maintaining enough theoretical obedience to kneel just out of reach, so Rose could choose when touch would be suitable.

No one was ridiculous enough to gasp or anything like that, but she could feel the panic levels in the room spike to a degree that wanted to raise the hair on the back of her neck. It was like standing near Sollux when the headaches were bad, so she had plenty of old practice dismissing the sensation.

In Aradia's opinion, a girl could do a lot for a taste of good old-fashioned transience around here. If the others asked later what she'd been thinking, she had the sensible defence of wanting to gather information about Rose's new tricks; having information that she really shouldn't was yet another thing she missed about freedom. If she died for this after all, she'd have a chance to learn how it could be that there were no ghosts here to tell her interesting or kind or useful things - what kind of sunken, sinking hole the gods had made of this place.

She didn't want to die, though. She really wanted to fucking breathe.

"I'd like to be granted a break from the corset."

There.

No, she could do one better: She gathered her hair and pulled it forwards over one shoulder, out of the way of the zip of her dress. Baring her nape to Rose - it made her have to fight off panic again, her own instincts now catching up with her fellow prisoners'.

It made Aradia bitter. Shouldn't she want to die after all this? Death should be an option: the possibility of an incomplete end, or of peace, or of a mystery. But all the touch and invasion that came on her, upon her friends, at all hours ... it reminded her how very much her body was her own. How much the others belonged to themselves, too, and how much more they should all have of themselves. There was no way for her to take a step back to an outside space. She was nothing but right here, lashed in place to keep feeling every ache that she wanted to challenge.

If she could at least breathe.

Rose's grip on her shoulder was firm, only her fingertips on Aradia. The zip was loud enough to draw attention to how silent everything else in the lounge was. Aradia shook her dress's bodice off, then bent forwards a little more to make the laces of the corset more accessible. The relief from its loosened pinch was immediate, and Aradia let herself gasp as Rose's presence behind her resolved into nothing but a bit of simple work. Fingertips and firmness...

...faltering.

Saying nothing further, Aradia removed the corset and folded it on her lap. As she did it, feeling her mouth purse tightly, idiotically as she stared at the precious pearls studding an inverse of her sign down the front, she felt Rose continue working.

Delicately, now. The corset piercings never healed all the way. The slight tugs at the metal loops was enough to make Aradia's back feel hotter, and the silk ribbons sliding out of the loops notably cooler as they brushed her skin, even though they'd warmed to her normal body temperature.

Rose hadn't asked if Aradia meant for her to get rid of the tightness of the corset piercing too. And now she would just have an excuse to truss her up again, or maybe make Vriska do it or something. The changes in Rose's behaviour couldn't be said to meaning anything at all, just yet. They were stuck waiting for her endgame. This had been a pointless thing to do, really.

With the first real breath Aradia took in a long time, she felt Rose's fingertips dart swiftly off of her shoulder, leaving another five points of coolness on her overheated skin.


End file.
